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Eddington's vitriolic assessment of The Federation

He really didn't have a right to complain. He was out of a cell, and even though he was handcuffed, he could still move about.

(Honestly, I wouldn't have let him walk about like that. At best, tied to one of the chairs, with the consoles near him turned off.)

Not to worry. We all know that Federation consoles are protected by extremely advanced fractal recursion quantum encryption algorithms that haven't experienced a single hack in almost 2 centuries.

Unless of course your name happens to be Geordi LaForge, or Seven of Nine, or b'Elanna Torres, or Data, or o'Brien or any of the like, in which case you'll crack the code in under five minutes.
 
*laughs*

I just pictured Cal Hudson standing impatiently while his eyes roll up in their sockets as Eddington delivers a random lecture on the merits of primitive agriculture.

Cal (to himself): "He's scaring the recruits away...again."
 
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It really did bother me that once Eddington betrayed Sisko the Maquis lost any shades of depth. While I wasn't at all impressed by Bernie Casey's performance as Hudson, I would have liked to see Eddington's radicalism come into conflict with other factions that favored less violent options.
 
Flat/disinterested delivery? Overly-stony expression? Unbelievable friendship with Brooks' Sisko?

The delivery, mostly. I think Hudson mentions at one point that his wife passed away, and if he was playing the character to be emotionally dead as a result, then that might have worked, but I don't think it was his intention.

He had the same style of delivery when he was on an episode of Babylon Five.
 
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That said, if he has been in prison for an extended period of time, being fed the same courses over and over on a 7-day schedule (each monday replicator menu 103, each tuesday replicator menu 217, etc.) I could imagine him being cranky when, even when taken out of prison to help with a mission he still gets that same menu served.

Then the episode cuts to a scene of Sisko whipping up a batch of poutine to entice Michael "Lucky Loonie" Eddington out of his cell.
 
The delivery, mostly. I think Hudson mentions at one point that his wife passed away, and if he was playing the character to be emotionally dead as a result, then that might have worked, but I don't think it was his intention.

Well, I re-watched the episodes featuring Bernie Casey (this time, with a critical eye) and I now agree with your appraisal of his performance; there are times when it seems that he's reading a script just off camera and times when he has memorized the lines, BUT he then expresses the bare minimum amount of emotion necessary to sell his character.
 
I really wanted to say that I'd seen him perform in a film/TV show where I thought he was well-cast and/or did a good job (especially when I saw that he passed away in 2017), but I checked his appearances and I can't remember him from anything other than B5 and DS9. :|

While I most certainly would have liked to see The Maquis presented as less monolithic after Eddington took charge of them, if it came down to a battle of wills between Eddington and Hudson as he was portrayed, I don't feel as though that would have been a battle so much as a massacre.

Chakotay vs. Eddington, though...there could have been some potential there. It's hard for me to imagine, if their roles had been reversed, that Eddington would have been nearly as easy to work with for Janeway as Chakotay usually was.
 
Chakotay vs. Eddington, though...there could have been some potential there. It's hard for me to imagine, if their roles had been reversed, that Eddington would have been nearly as easy to work with for Janeway as Chakotay usually was.

On the other hand, as written, I don't really believe that Chakotay could inspire anyone to sacrifice for an underdog cause. Eddington, though? I believe this man could inspire people to fight for a difficult cause.
 
When the character was well-written (so, once in a blue moon) and Beltran wasn't bored with being sidelined, Chakotay could be quietly inspiring; Eddington might impress if I were a snobbish gourmand thoroughly ignorant of the tools at my disposal.
 
Dear Eddington, Ask Keiko to use part of one of the storage bays converted to botany use. Set it for 20 earth hour days, 25 celsius highs, and medium amount of water. Ask for Sungold tomatoes, and before you know it you'll have delicious tomato goodness all simulated summer long and nobody even has to die.
 
When the character was well-written (so, once in a blue moon) and Beltran wasn't bored with being sidelined, Chakotay could be quietly inspiring; Eddington might impress if I were a snobbish gourmand thoroughly ignorant of the tools at my disposal.

If one is not invested in the idea that the Federation represents some kind of ideal or nearly ideal political structure, I think Eddington can be very inspiring. Investigate what independence movements and revolutionary movements are like; there are often people like him in those circles.
 
Dear Eddington, Ask Keiko to use part of one of the storage bays converted to botany use. Set it for 20 earth hour days, 25 celsius highs, and medium amount of water. Ask for Sungold tomatoes, and before you know it you'll have delicious tomato goodness all simulated summer long and nobody even has to die.

Dear Eddington (the Cliff's Notes version):

1) You peaked with Krull. 2) Worlds HAVE left the Federation. 3) It's not about you. 4) The Federation isn't perfect, but the Borg are MUCH worse. 5) So shut the fuck up. 6) Part of Hell already IS frozen over, and you're about to find out which. 7) The end.
 
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